Hewitt loses, Ivanovic wins

Men:

Hewitt and Gonzo stuffed it. Tursunov still isn't back but Davy may be. Fed put on a show. Soderling took five as did Monfils, Melzer, Montanes and Mathieu (try saying that fast).

Ball justified his WC, Roddick and Cilic cruised and Gasquet won.

Murray's Quarter
Matches to watch: Stepanek vs Benneteau
Winner: Murray

Nadal's Quarter
Matches to watch: Lopez vs Giraldo, Ferrer vs Dolgopolov, Chardy vs Gulbis
Winner: Nadal

Djokovic’s Quarter
Bye bye: O Rochus, Russell
Matches to watch: Baghdatis vs Clement, Troicki vs Djokovic, Vliegen vs Blake
Winner: Roddick

Fed’s Quarter
Bye bye: Tursunov, Hewitt
Winner: Federer

Women:

Ivanovic triumphed while Safina continued to fall. Azarenka strugged, Oudin took charge and Venus and Clijsters cruised.

Stosur struggled, little Sally Peers continued her run while Sophie Ferguson wasted the wildcard she received over Jelena Dokic.

Wozniacki’s Quarter
Matches to watch: Rezai vs Rybarikova, Sharapova vs Groth, Strycova vs Kirilenko
Winner: Wozniacki

Jankovic’s Quarter
Matches to watch: Jankovic vs Halep, Molik vs Lucic, Petkovic vs Petrova
Winner: Zvonareva

Venus Williams' Quarter
Bye bye: Savchuk, MLDB
Winner: Azarenka

Clijsters’ Quarter
Bye bye: Vesnina, Safina, Makarova
Winner: Clijsters

Love means nothing to a tennis player

Men:

So Fed's hired his fifteenth coach in the last three weeks and Nadal can't play on hardcourts and is unliked in New York. Murray's the man and Djokovic has breathing problems. Don't you love the US media. Nadal's the favourite until he loses, then you can take your guess.

Djokovic’s Quarter
Matches to watch: Tipsarevic vs O Rochus, Davydenko vs Russell
Winner: Roddick

Fed’s Quarter
Matches to watch: Melzer vs Tursunov, Hewitt vs Mathieu
Winner: Federer

Women:
Has the Woz earned her top spot? Sure, will she win? Let's wait till she cruises the first week before we need to answer. The tournament winner of the last two weeks is strong, consistent and probably injured.

Ivanovic and Hantuchova have tough first rounds, but don't they all... For real pressure go and check out Oudin though. If she plays like she's been playing ever since last year then the fairytale is over. Have Courage. (it's a kind of beer isn't it?)

Venus Williams’s Quarter
Matches to watch: Oudin vs Savchuk, MLDB vs Mirza
Winner: Azarenka

Clijsters’s Quarter
Matches to watch: Stosur vs Vesnina, Hantuchova vs Safina, Ivanovic vs Makarova
Winner: Clijsters

US Open 2010 - The Slacker's Guide to win might win

Men:

No Del Po, only Fed and his nemesis: Rafa. There's talk of Murray of course, there will always be, but it's only talk until he does a Del Potro and wins something (or gets lucky like Djokovic). everyone else is just holding the coats. Fed vs Rafa for the title (assuming Jet Boy gets past Murray, which he probably won't) and another title for the master. Unless Murray really means it...

Nadal’s Quarter
Seeds: Kohlschreiber, Lopez, Ljubicic, Ferrer, Gulbis, Verdasco
Players to watch: Young, Simon, Schuettler, Nieminen, Becker, Chardy, Fognini, Nalbandian
Winner: Nadal

Murray’s Quarter
Seeds: Querrey, Wawrinka, Isner, Stepanek, Berdych
Players to watch: Lu, Seppi, Starace, Robredo, Benneteau, Llodra, Hanescu
Winner: Murray

Djokovic’s Quarter
Seeds: Davydenko, Monfils, Roddick, Andreev, Baghdatis, Fish, Monaco
Players to watch: Russell, Gasquet, Anderson, Tipsarevic, Clement, Ginepri, Troicki, Blake
Winner: Roddick

Fed’s Quarter
Seeds: Soderling, Gonzalez, Montanes, Cilic, Melzer, Hewitt, Ferrero
Players to watch: Dent, de Bakker, Ball, Phau, Mathieu
Winner: Federer

Final: Federer vs Murray

Winner: Roger Federer

Women:

No Serena, no Henin, top seed is a Danish glamour puss who no one expects to win. How wide open does it have to be before anyone takes notice?

Sharapova's here but nobody expects her to threaten (nobody serious anyway - she's all over Yahoo), Clijsters is the defending champion - no really she is - but nobody is interested in her chances. Venus is a proven champion who hasn't won anything this big for years. Russians Dementieva and Kuznetsova have been here before but have their own form problems. Elena must be privately salivating at her prospects here if only she can master her nerves, her serve...

Azarenka and Wozniacki are contenders and will probably remain so. The wipeout trio Safina, Ivanovic and Jankovic will no doubt lose in the first week (as last year). Ivanovic can now blame her's on injury though. The new look Bepa Zvonareva could be a dark horse.

Wozniacki's Quarter
Seeds: Safarova, Rezai, Sharapova, Kuznetsova, Li, Kirilenko, Shvedova
Players to watch: CSN, Chan, Rybarikova, Sprem, Benesova, Groth, Date Krumm, Kulikova, Strycova, Chakvetadze, Urszula Radwanska, Voegele, Cibulkova
Winner: Wozniacki

Jankovic's Quarter
Seeds: MJMS, Wickmayer, Agnieszka Radwanska, Peng, Petrova, Dulgheru, Zvonareva
Players to watch: Halep, Cornet, Coin, Cirstea, Lisicki, Schnyder
Winner: Zvonareva

Venus Williams’s Quarter
Seeds: Schiavone, Alona Bondarenko, Pavlyuchenkova, Azarenka, Peer, Pennetta, Pironkova
Players to watch: Ferguson, Oudin, Dushevina, Barrois, Dulko, Kerber, Parmentier, Zahlavova, Winner: Azarenka

Clijsters’s Quarter
Seeds: Stosur, Kleybanova, Hantuchova, Kvitova, Dementieva, Bartoli, Zheng
Players to watch: Safina, Vesnina, King, Bammer, Ivanovic, Martic
Winner: Clijsters

Final: Zvonareva vs Azarenka

Winner: Vera Zvonareva

Serena out

Serena Williams pulled out of the US Open with an injured foot which will make it easier on the linespeople. Without her the field is wide open, unless you believe the Clijsters hype. Apparently Henin isn't coming either but no one will miss her much. Can we call Caroline Wozniacki a favourite?

Agassi plays Sampras in another chapter of their ongoing feud. Do you think they sat in a room somewhere with all their agents and said "Ok, yeah, we don't like each other, but think of all the money we can make? Really? that much? Ok, let's put on a show for the punters still dreaming of when America ruled men's tennis."

Iveta Benesova celebrated her greatest win (against a flailing Jankovic) by taking it easy in the next round with predictable results. That's the Iveta we love.

Schiavone finally got a win, but only against Safina, Bepa took care of Clijsters. The Woz rolled against Schiavone and we have a Woz Kuz matchup.

Andy Murray managed to lose to Fish screwing up my chance of winning the ATP tipping comp. Fed beat Davydenko but who can't? And Roddick beat the Djoker. Is it too early for Roddick hype?

Coco Vandeweghe got herself a US Open wildcard and celebrated by losing in New Haven qualies. As expected Sophie Ferguson got the TA nod over Dokic.

Simona Halep is back playing and winning in New Haven.

Do you know there's a male player called Venus? (No idea who he is but he's playing in Karshi)

Three tournament wins for Jelena Dokic!

Jelena Dokic won yet another tournament with another Challenger win in Vancouver. She beat Virginie Razzano 6-4 6-1 in the final showng that she should be playing back on the WTA tour and hopefully getting a US Open Wildcard courtesy of her pals back in Tennis Australia.

Dokic has finally hired a proper coach - Glen Schaap - and she thanked him for helping her.

“I’ve always been interested in working with him,” says Dokic of Schaap, who used to coach former world No. 1 Ana Ivanovic. “He’s very tough, which I like. Glen has changed a few of my strokes, tried to shorten them up a bit," she said. "But he and I have been working mostly on my fitness." This is a good sign because Dokic has been noticeably unfit in recent times...

"There's nothing like being match fit," she said. "I isolated myself from everyone and everything and just focused on training. I've got it together now and I'm happy there's still three or four months left to play. I feel good coming into the U.S. Open."

Dokic has now withdrawn from Montreal and the rumour is that Sophie Ferguson will get the TA wildcard, meaning that Jelena will have to play qualifying in New York despite her new ranking of 82.

Serena Williams still using twitter to promote tennis

Good to see Serena Williams is still out there promoting tennis any way she can. She really thinks outside the box and good luck to her. So she didn't score some freebie tickets to the whatever classic that James Blake is playing in. She still used her status and influence to ensure that the tournament got a heap of publicity by slagging it off on Twitter. Good girl. That's so much better then threatening to shove tennis balls down people's throats. As she said: "Anywho don't go if u r in LA" - real champions don't need to use grammer.

http://twitter.com/serenajwilliams - much better then the actual tennis tour. Get better and come back soon Serena.

Dokic wins another title!

Jelena Dokic won her second-straight Challenger title with a win in the final in Bucharest. She beat Czech Zuzana Ondraskova 3-6 6-1 7-6(3) in the final of the $75K second-tier claycourt event. It's too late to help her get in the US Open (the cut-off was two weeks ago) but may persuade Tennis Oz to give her their wildcard. Otherwise they might give it to Sophie Ferguson and no one wants to see that...

With new Aussies Anastasia Rodionova and Jarmila Groth ripping it up in recent times, Oz already have four (count em: four) women in the main draw. Stosur and Molik are the others. Still only two men: Lleyton Hewitt and Peter Luczak. Presumedly Ball gets the WC again.

Video: Sharapova loses to a bear